# A Real Young Girl
**A Real Young Girl** (*Une vraie jeune fille*) is a 1970s French drama directed by [Catherine Breillat](https://www.edgepedia.org/catherine-breillat), her first feature film, adapted from her own novel *Le Soupirail*. It follows Alice Bonnard, an adolescent spending summer vacation with her parents in the Landes, whose sexual fantasies center on Jim, a young employee at her father's sawmill.[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/69025.html) Classified X on completion, the film lost its distributor and reached French theaters only on 7 June 2000, distributed by Rezo Films.[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/69025.html) • [2](https://rezofilms.com/fr/distribution/une-vraie-jeune-fille)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / writer | Catherine Breillat, her debut feature, adapted from her novel *Le Soupirail*[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/69025.html) |
| Production year | Sources give 1975 (Cinémathèque française) and 1976 (Janus Films, critic.de)[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/69025.html) • [3](https://www.janusfilms.com/films/2185) |
| Runtime / format | 93 minutes, color, 1.66:1[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/69025.html) • [3](https://www.janusfilms.com/films/2185) |
| Cast | Charlotte Alexandra (Alice Bonnard), Hiram Keller (Jim), Rita Maiden, Bruno Balp, Shirley Stoler[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/69025.html) |
| Music | Mort Shuman; Breillat wrote the songs' lyrics[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/69025.html) • [4](https://www.critic.de/film/ein-wirklich-junges-maedchen-15173/) |
| Censorship | Classified X at release; withheld from theaters for about 25 years; French release 7 June 2000[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/69025.html) • [2](https://rezofilms.com/fr/distribution/une-vraie-jeune-fille) |
| Press reception | Average 3.7 of 5 across 12 French press reviews on AlloCiné[5](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-15840/critiques/presse/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and setting
Alice, a boarding-school student, returns by train to her parents' home in the Landes for summer vacation and introduces herself in voice-over: "My name is Alice. Alice Bonnard... my father's and mother's last names. I don't like people."[6](https://www.efebodoro.it/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/LOW_EFEBODORO_2025_CATALOGO.pdf) Tormented by her first desires, she fantasizes about Jim, the young employee at her father's sawmill, and tries to seduce him.[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/69025.html) As she experiments with her sexuality with objects, liquids, and her hands, the boundary between reality and imagination blurs; the film ends with Jim's murder, and the futures of Alice and her parents' marriage are left unclear.[6](https://www.efebodoro.it/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/LOW_EFEBODORO_2025_CATALOGO.pdf) • [7](https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/thesescanada/vol2/002/MR63313.PDF)
The protagonist's age is stated differently across sources: a monograph on Breillat describes Alice as seventeen, while the National Coalition Against Censorship describes her as fourteen.[7](https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/thesescanada/vol2/002/MR63313.PDF) • [8](https://ncac.org/news/blog/cut-censored-banned-ncacs-top-40-film-picks)
## Production and censorship history
Breillat wrote the source novella, *Le Soupirail*, when she was seventeen years old.[7](https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/thesescanada/vol2/002/MR63313.PDF) The film was produced by André Génovès's Les Films de La Boétie together with CB Films and Artedis, with Pierre-Richard Muller as delegate producer.[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/69025.html) According to a thesis on Breillat, Génovès believed sexuality seen from a woman's perspective would sell, and wanted credit for creating the first female director in pornography.[7](https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/thesescanada/vol2/002/MR63313.PDF)
**Suppression and release.** Classified X at its completion, the film lost its distributor and was withheld from theaters for roughly twenty-five years.[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/69025.html) In 1980 Muller bought the exploitation rights at auction; Breillat later said he had prevented the film from being recognized and had released it in porno cinemas even though it held a normal censorship visa.[9](https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2025/07/30/derriere-la-retrospective-claude-chabrol-un-long-combat-juridique_6625540_3246.html) Its belated 2000 French release was aided by the success of Breillat's *[Romance](https://www.edgepedia.org/romance-1999-film)* the year before.[10](https://www.mediatheque.be/collection/une-vraie-jeune-fille-vu8961)
A production detail noted by *Première*: the film was shot silent and dubbed by other actors two years later, which gave visual impact precedence over the dialogue.[5](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-15840/critiques/presse/)
## Style and themes
The Cinémathèque française describes the film as laying the foundations of a transgressive cinema, showing an adolescent's sexual fantasies of the 1960s "in the manner of an entomologist", with hyperreal color, imprudent zooms, and close-ups smeared with organic matter.[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/69025.html) The German critic Till Kadritzke reads it as a kind of coming-of-age western without a showdown, in which every image is affectively colored by Alice's perspective before it conveys information, and in which bodily fluids open transitions into fantasy sequences, including a scene in which Jim approaches Alice with a mutilated earthworm.[4](https://www.critic.de/film/ein-wirklich-junges-maedchen-15173/)
A recurring line, spoken by Alice after vomiting on herself, anchors the film's method: "Le dégoût me rend lucide" (disgust makes me lucid).[11](https://www.troiscouleurs.fr/cinema/cinema-entretiens/catherine-breillat-je-me-suis-faite-toute-seule-envers-et-contre-tout-le-monde/) An Italian festival catalog argues the film should not be mistaken for 1970s sexploitation: Breillat's eroticism is rude and sideways, invoking disgust deliberately, and the film addresses gender dynamics, misogynistic patriarchy, and female desire for self-determination.[6](https://www.efebodoro.it/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/LOW_EFEBODORO_2025_CATALOGO.pdf) Janus Films calls it an audacious trial run for Breillat's core strategies and themes, including the connection between transgressive fantasy and sober reality.[3](https://www.janusfilms.com/films/2185)
## Critical reception
On AlloCiné's aggregation of 12 [French press](https://www.edgepedia.org/french-press) reviews, the film averages 3.7 out of 5.[5](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-15840/critiques/presse/) *Cahiers du Cinéma*'s Jean-Baptiste Chauvin wrote that the debut already "contains all her cinema to come".[5](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-15840/critiques/presse/) *Libération*'s Philippe Azoury located its force in the "abysses of a decrepit puritanism, close to the profane Georges Bataille".[5](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-15840/critiques/presse/) More reserved notices called it a curiosity: *L'Événement*'s François Jonquet found it somewhat rough-hewn and anecdotal, though a measure of how far the director had traveled, and *Télérama* suggested taking it as a strict curiosity, clanging with censorship, amateurism, and dated post-synchronization.[5](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-15840/critiques/presse/)
## References
1. [Une vraie jeune fille (Catherine Breillat, 1975), La Cinémathèque française](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/69025.html)
2. [Une vraie jeune fille, RezoFilms](https://rezofilms.com/fr/distribution/une-vraie-jeune-fille)
3. [A Real Young Girl, Janus Films](https://www.janusfilms.com/films/2185)
4. [Ein wirklich junges Mädchen – Kritik von Till Kadritzke, critic.de](https://www.critic.de/film/ein-wirklich-junges-maedchen-15173/)
5. [Critiques presse pour le film Une vraie jeune fille, AlloCiné](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-15840/critiques/presse/)
6. [UNE VRAIE JEUNE FILLE / A REAL YOUNG GIRL, Cinema de Seta catalog, Efebo d'Oro](https://www.efebodoro.it/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/LOW_EFEBODORO_2025_CATALOGO.pdf)
7. [The Romance of Catherine Breillat, thesis, Library and Archives Canada](https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/thesescanada/vol2/002/MR63313.PDF)
8. [Cut, Censored, Banned: NCAC's Top 40 Film Picks, National Coalition Against Censorship](https://ncac.org/news/blog/cut-censored-banned-ncacs-top-40-film-picks)
9. [Derrière la rétrospective Claude Chabrol, un long combat juridique, Le Monde](https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2025/07/30/derriere-la-retrospective-claude-chabrol-un-long-combat-juridique_6625540_3246.html)
10. [UNE VRAIE JEUNE FILLE de Catherine BREILLAT, Médiathèque Nouvelle](https://www.mediatheque.be/collection/une-vraie-jeune-fille-vu8961)
11. [Catherine Breillat : « Je me suis faite toute seule, envers et contre tout le monde », TroisCouleurs](https://www.troiscouleurs.fr/cinema/cinema-entretiens/catherine-breillat-je-me-suis-faite-toute-seule-envers-et-contre-tout-le-monde/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Erotic thrillers and dramas*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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